Tuesday, April 7
After docking at 10.00am, we caught the shuttle bus to the centre of town approx 7 miles away. We were really impressed with the cleanliness of Nha Trang as we drove along and once we reached the city proper were even more impressed with the magnificent beach stretching 2.5 miles along the Main Street - Tran Phu Street. It looked magnificent with the sun shining on the turquoise water with a backdrop of towering mountains.
Nha Trang is located 275 miles north of Saigon and is one of Vietnam's most popular seaside resorts but it has had a varied past. Until the French colonised it, it was just a collection of small fishing villages. The French recognised it's possibilities as a place for relaxing so they invested in turning it into a resort town. More recently it was popular as an R&R spot for US servicemen during the Vietnam war. Today it is the tourist dollar that is very important to the 300,000 citizens of Nha Trang. We noticed that most signs in shops, etc. were written in Vietnamese, English and Russian and we saw quite a few Russian tourists about but guess that many more come in the northern winter months. We also saw that several of the major hotels were advertising Oktoberfest & Bier Fests so assume Nha Trang is popular with the Germans too. There were two cruise ships in port today and Nha Trang now features on many cruise itineraries.
The shuttle bus dropped us at the entrance to the Nha Trang Shopping Complex and as we were keen to find somewhere with wifi and a strong signal, we went in. We haven't been able to post the blog for several days now. Whenever we have had wifi we have only been able to send Facebook and Instagram items, the blog has always stalled part way through. We found the Food Court, ordered coffee and started work. Again, no luck with the blog so we packed up and went to a Coffee Shop where the signal was stronger. Still no luck, we could only get the words of our blog to post and not the pictures. Oh well, the coffee was good and at least we were in air-conditioned comfort. The temperature was forecast to reach into the 90's today.
After all our hard work it was lunchtime so we decided to head back to the Food Court and get lunch before going out to explore. The food in Vietnam is very good and so cheap. We had two platters of food and two cups of tea for a total AUD10.
We picked up a map at the Shopping Centre Info Desk and decided to walk to the local market. This was a great choice for us as the place was buzzing and we were able to get a good feel for the local produce, delicacies, clothing, etc. It was so hot and some of the smells, especially the dried fish, were a bit unpleasant but the people were so friendly and didn't hassle us too much at all. Like at Victoria Market, once we had seen two or three of the handbag, shoe and clothing stalls, we had seen the entire range available there. The fresh produce was displayed beautifully but we were concerned about the fresh meat and fish being left out in the open unrefrigerated and not even on ice. The most fascinating stalls to us were the grocery and hardware stalls. At one grocery stall we spotted a liqueur that is very popular here with scorpions and snakes in the bottle - no whimpy little Tequila worms for these people. The hardware stalls carried everything including the kitchen sink.
The Vietnamese women are very skin conscious so never sunbathe and always cover up even though it is so hot. Whenever they go out in the sun they wear socks with sandals to protect their feet, cotton gloves for their hands and if wearing a short-sleeved dress or top, they slip on a sleeve covering from the wrist to the elbow. On the motor bikes they all wear masks, some full face masks with just eye cut-outs and, if walking, carry an umbrella for sun protection. The result is that they are beautiful women with magnificent skin and we Aussies should probably take a leaf out of their book instead of spending a fortune on creams, botox, etc.
After spending quite a long time at the market, we headed back to have a good look at the beach. It was absolutely fantastic with lovely white sand and umbrellas & deck chairs could be hired by the hour. The only challenge was that it required crossing the main road to reach it. Crossing the road in Vietnam is a life threatening ordeal but our guide on yesterday's tour told us how to do it. Pedestrian crossings mean nothing here so you have to step out (bravely - because there is always traffic coming), put your hand out to the side in a sort of low stop signal but keep moving. The traffic doesn't stop but moves around you - definitely not for the faint-hearted!
We took some final photos of the beach and city area then caught the shuttle bus back to the port. As if we hadn't done enough shopping, a small market had been set up at the wharf and we all went and browsed through that - amazing - do we ever get our fill?
Back on board dinner was in the form of hawker stands each serving a different type of food. The stands were set up around the main pool and the area was hung with huge red lanterns and a large dragon extending the full length of the pool. After selecting our food we were happy to escape back inside because the heat really was oppressive outside, even with the pool roof open. Soon after there was a commotion with a banging drum, cymbals and loud voices and a large dragon (with little Indonesian legs) came bursting in and weaved in and out around the tables. The Indonesian crew really do go all out to create atmosphere.
After dinner we went to the Show and it was a Cultural Show with a local dance & musical troupe performing traditional Vietnamese songs and dances. We thought it was the best local production we have seen - some can be so boring or poorly executed but these performers were very professional. All in all, it was a really good day in Nha Trang.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment